The stage is set for the swearing-in of Haryana’s first chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Manohar Lal Khattar, and his council of ministers on Sunday at Panchkula near here.

The stage is set for the swearing-in of Haryana’s first chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Manohar Lal Khattar, and his council of ministers on Sunday at Panchkula near here.

The ceremony will be an unprecedented mega event, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues, chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states, and other top leaders of the saffron party among nearly 150 VIPs in attendance. The function for which three daises have been raised will be start at the 13-acre fair grounds in Sector 5, Panchkula, at 11.23am. On one of the two stages along the main platform, the new BJP legislators and parliamentarian would sit, while the other is reserved for union ministers and religious leaders.

A BJP press release stated here on Saturday that with four of the five independent legislators, namely Ravinder Machhrouli (Samalkha), Dinesh Kaushik (Pundri), Jasbir Deswal (Safidon), and Rahish Khan (Punhana), as well as the sole Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Tek Chand Sharma (Prithla) having extended unconditional support to the BJP, the party’s effective strength had risen from 47 to 52 in the House of 90.